Please, take a moment to call or email your lawmaker. Ask them to vote for the bill (H.3407), without amendment, and to rally their peers to do the same.

May 24, 2011

Dear SC Club for Growth Members and Friends,

School Choice legislation has emerged from a House Committee and will be debated on the floor tomorrow.
The long-term economic implications of the proposal are startlingly positive.

Parents would be extended a state income tax credit for out of pocket tuition expenses, and both corporate and individual donors could obtain credits for donations made to organizations providing low-income children with tuition scholarships. Initially, only transfer students and entering kindergarten students would be eligible.

The size of the maximum average tax credit, or tax credit funded tuition scholarship, will be $4,800. Compare that to a projected $11,754 in per-student funding in the public schools for next school year.

The bill does several important things to decrease the size of government and promote economic growth in the private sector:

1. Rewards and encourages families who send their children to private schools, reducing the size and scope of spending in the traditional public schools.

2. The size of the credits are such that the “loss” in revenue to the State will be less than the state’s reduced liability to public schools. This leaves more money in government coffers to fund traditional public schools without the need for tax hikes.

3. Begins the process of state support for, and funding of, students rather than schools. This is bridge toward so-called “smart funding” or “backpacking” of K12 dollars.

4. Breaks the defacto government monopoly over student instruction, the single largest expense in both the state and local government’s budgets.

5. Spurs innovation and improvement in private and public schools alike through the power of competition, raising student achievement and reducing bureaucratic inefficiencies.

Passage of the legislation will constitute a major blow to the myth that only large and expensive government bureaucracies are capable of serving “public goods” through one-size-fits-all systems of rationing. A parent-driven education system is not only the best thing for students, it is the most economically and academically efficient.

Please, take a moment to call or email your lawmaker. Ask them to vote for the bill (H.3407), without amendment, and to rally their peers to do the same:

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/cgi-bin/zipcodesearch.exe

As always, thank you for your generous support. We couldn’t do it without you. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Sincerely,
Bauer Vaughters
Chairman
SC Club for Growth